


Oasis

by Dacia



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, M/M, Magic School, Original Fiction, Original Mythology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 13:35:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21477232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dacia/pseuds/Dacia
Summary: Sometime home is nearer than one thinks. Sometimes, a curse is a blessing.A god comes to life.
Relationships: Aryha/Dragon, Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Kudos: 3
Collections: Droid's short stories





	Oasis

Aryha rubbed the paper lightly, carefully smudging the charcoal till the lines were softened. He used the chalk to lighten the strands of Siokka Kara's hair, and to highlight the shadows on her face. Frowning at the nearly finished sketch, he tilted it up against the sunlight. The Siokka in the sketch had her fingers stretched, with threads of Maya connecting them in the crisscrossed pattern of a summoning spell. It was the same spell that she had shown them at the beginning of class, but looking at the sketch Aryha wished he had sketched the dices of necromancy instead. While it was not the Maya Siokka Kara preferred - he thought it would have suited the sketch better.

  
He was considering beginning the sketch again when something hit the tip of nose. Blinking and sitting up, Aryha saw the Siokka staring at him, looking thoroughly exasperated.

  
\- "I wasn't done with that."

  
"You will get it back after you do the spell." Siokka Kara rolled her eyes, grabbing the sketch from where it had come to float before her. "Successfully", she added as an afterthought.

  
\- "When is he not successful?"

  
Aryha could not tell who said that. It was a sentiment shared by the majority of the student body here in Yanju Anwansi. Not like they were wrong anyway.

  
He walked over by the Siokka's circle and faced his classmates, running his eyes absently over the faces scowling at him, and let the Maya rise up from within. The spell unfolded in his mind, its lines and thread twisting around as Aryha shifted its layers, curving its energy like water on canvas and pulled.

  
He knew immediately that he had gone in too deep. They were supposed to summon a Jiyi, a spirit of grade one, preferably from the fountain of the inner courtyard. The Jiyi were pieces of memories and the fountain held many of them from all the wishes and prayers that students threw in its water. What Aryha had ended up summoning, on the other hand -

\- "You smell nice."

  
Aryha tried to wriggle away. The boy responded by tightening his arms around Aryha's neck and nuzzled against his cheek. He could hear Siokka Kara sighing.

  
"Grade eight, holder of Xerayi, the all-seeing eye, Demon Ziener." Aryha winced at the Siokka's look. "Once summoned, will remain bound to the summoned for three new moons. Summoning spell - none. Or it was so, till now."

  
"I can sketch out the spell?" Aryha looked at the paper in Siokka's hand forlornly. It was just a doodle, but still. He liked keeping track of all his sketches.

  
The Siokka shoved the paper at him and Aryha ignored the disgusted glare she was shooting at him at the favour of smiling at his sketch. The boy - demon - peered at the paper curiously. Aryha did not even mind him - it - nuzzling his face anymore.

  
\- "You do that. And remember to take care of your summon. "

  
Aryha nodded absentmindedly. Then he looked up. "Take care of him?" He frowned. "But I sealed the energy leeching away. He will be able to stay here on his own. Oh and I removed the time frame too. He should be able to able to leave anytime he wants to. There wasn't anything else, right?" He looked at the - person - hanging on him unsurely.

  
"You sealed off the energy leeching." He looked at the Siokka. She was shaking her head, whether in amazement or exasperation, Aryha could not tell.

  
"Just keep an eye on him." Siokka Kara waved him off. "Luka, you are going next."

  
Aryha started walking back to his window-side desk, demon-person-Ziener hanging on his arm and ignored the irritated glares thrown at him. He focussed on the sketch held between his fingers instead. He still planned to do a second one with the dices, but with this one, he thought he wanted to put in some colour. He very nearly lost it after all. It deserved some special treatment.

  
Shades of blue, he decided. Three to four tones.

* * *

\- "Ry. Ry. Wait up."

  
Aryha looked around, stopping in his track and stumbling as another body crashed against him.

  
"Sorry about that." Suha grinned at him and Aryha found himself smiling back. "Come on. The rest are already outside. What are you loitering here for?"

  
"I was going to my room." Aryha told her, letting himself be dragged the other way. "I wanted to ink in a sketch."

  
"You can do that later." Aryha could hear the eye roll in her voice. "We have a project to work on. Now walk."

  
"I don't think I have this project." Aryha said, half an hour later, after Miri and Rain had finished showing the outline they have created. It was meant to be a triple layered combination of enchantment, biokinesis and clairvoyance. Aryha was pretty sure he did not have this project.

  
"Of course you don't have this project." Rain stared at him. "This is a group project. You don't do those."

  
\- "But, but then - "

  
"Moral support. You are here for moral support." Miri muttered, squinting at the diagram she had drawn moments ago. "Where did Orion go?"

  
"Seventy-five degree north-east, but you don't need him. You have Polaris." Aryha answered automatically. "What do you mean moral support? I have tons of work -"

  
"You have tons of doodles and sketches, yes we know." Suha pushed away the tome before her tiredly. "We cannot use Polaris, that's too much power. None of us can draw on that."

  
"So use a layered circle and remove the stopgaps." Aryha pursed his lips. "My doodles are important."

  
"Removing the stopgaps will literally flood us with energy till we die." Aryha wilted at the glare that Rain threw at him. "Not all of us are blessed with Genesis, remember?"

  
"It's not a blessing for me." Aryha picked at his sleeve. "I don't even like magic."

  
"At times like this it is hard to remember why we are friends." Miri muttered.

  
"Are we friends?" Aryha tried to remember the particular moment when that declaration had come about. Much like all other times when he attempted this, he came up blank.

  
"Well", Suha rubbed at her eyes tiredly. "We have come to a general consensus that we will actually miss your ass -"

  
\- "Only the ass, mind you."

  
"- when our paths part." Suha glared at Miri. "And it not just the ass."

  
"Mainly the ass." Rain told Aryha. "That is really the best part of you."

  
"Please stop ogling me." Aryha leaned back, feeling a wave of irritation. "And we are not talking about this again."

  
\- "We haven't even started talking about it yet."

\- "This is my life and-"

  
"Stop having the emotional capacity of an adolescent pup for a moment and use that genius brain of yours." Miri snapped at him. It was kind of scary. Miri tended not to snap. Unless it was at Aryha. He should be getting used to this by this point.

  
"I am thinking." He ran his hand through his hair, wishing for the umpteenth time that he was back at his room. "I am thinking that I am absolutely bored with school and that I will actually like to something that I enjoy for once, which ..."

  
\- "You are good at magic ... "

  
\- "... is painting, and I don't care if I am good at magic. I did not ask to have Genesis as my primary Maya..."

  
\- "... and right now you sound really spoilt and arrogant, like always..."

  
\- "...and I don't want it. I don't care how I sound ..."

  
\- "... you could join the Kaitsta and help so many ..."

  
"- I don't want any of it. I don't care for others, okay? Would you stop?" Aryha glared at the faces looking at him, feeling his breath choking up and felt a surge of anger. "By the Dragon, why do you insist on calling me friend when I am spoilt and arrogant and selfish and a complete waste of potential?"

  
It took him moment to calm down and another to blink at his companions to realise that they were unable to speak. Aryha squeezed his eyes tightly, feeling a sharp, familiar sting of self-loathing, and focussed. It was less than a breath for him to return the vocal chords that he had removed in careless anger.

  
"I am leaving tonight." Aryha spoke at his hands, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. "This is my choice to make."

  
\- "You are leaving because you are bored."

  
\- "Rain ..."

  
"No". Aryha fell silent. "You are leaving because you are bored. Top of the class, Dragon, possibly top of the entire school, and you are bored - "

  
"That's Genesis." Aryha tugged at his hair harshly. "That's - that's what Genesis is. It has nothing to do with whether I am interested or not -"

  
"You cannot use Genesis unless you understand exactly what you are trying to do." Suha closed the book before her. "Last year, you learned the entire coursework in one-third of the prescribed time and then started remodelling and recreating the circles and the spells. That's not Genesis, that's work."

  
"Because I wanted to finish up early". Aryha shrugged. "I dont like classes, in case you haven't noticed."

  
Miri sighed. "We all want to finish up early. Not all of us can. Tenacity, brain - whatever it is, it is not Genesis." She peered at him. "You really won't miss magic at all?"

  
"I know I won't." Aryha said. "Magic feels like cheating to me. There's nothing to touch and make, just a thought and the Maya brings it into existence. Maybe", he stood up, "if I did not have Genesis as my primary Maya - if it was something like heightened senses, telekinesis, necromancy of even clairvoyance - I would like it more. But as it is - "

  
\- "Technically, Genesis can and does give you literally all and any of that, you just have to be able to imagine it in detail. Though - "

  
\- "why you would want to have weird dreams or talk to dead people ?" Miri completed Rain's words. "Have you ever tried using those Ry?"

  
\- "Well no, but - "

  
\- "Good. Don't."

  
"Look, the point remains, okay?" Aryha wanted to be back in his room already. "I am leaving. And- "

  
He bit his lips. "You said we are friends. So please don't tell anyone. I don't want the Siokkae to find out."

  
"Yes, yes. We get it. Majority of the Siokkae will be out tonight anyway, so your plan should be safe." Suha rolled her eyes.

"Don't leave before dinner though. And hey what happened to that demon you had summoned?"

  
"Ziener went back." Aryha turned to leave. "But he let me paint him first."

* * *

Yanju Anwansi was softer in moonlight. The white marble and glass gleamed silver with dark shadows arching through with long fingers, twisted into lonely shapes. Aryha had an entire series of sketches and oil paintings that had sprung from those shapes. He thought if he was going to miss anything about this place, it would be this.

  
_If_. He was not going to miss anything about this school at all. It was not the boredom really. It was the lack of time. When he completed his course work early last year, the school gave him extra work - because he had potential. He hated that term. All it had ever done was to take time away from him, time when he could have created something more. 

  
Aryha walked through the empty courtyard, pausing before the fountain. Everyone threw in small objects here - containing their Maya and wishes and dreams. Promises sometimes.

Aryha had never bothered. With Genesis, he literally could have anything he wanted. The fountain itself was built from Genesis - though who had built it had been lost over the long years. With how rare Genesis was as a primary Maya - there still wasn't many records of prior users.

  
Aryha remembered a time when he used to use Genesis freely. It was like breathing. And then he had breathed in an unicorn into existence - from one of the paintings in his mother's room - and all of a sudden his home was overflowing with people concerned about the ethics of having such power.

  
He looked up at the moon and curled his lips. They had tried nullifiers and controllers on him. It had no effect whatsoever. And then his parents had packed him off here to learn about the right way of using Maya - never mind that he was five and didn't even know what went wrong.

  
Aryha closed his eyes for a moment, and tried to swallow past the lump in his throat. He did not realise he could be this sentimental.

  
_They should be happy that I am dropping magic. _He told the fountain_. Since I am too pwerful and could turn everything into non-existence just by wishing it. They should be happy, because they could not kill me anyway._

  
And they had tried to. Aryha did not know if his parents knew this, if they condoned this, but there was a period of time, around his seven years of age when the attacks targeted at him in every practical class started to become more and more sinister till it was outright attempts of killing him. It was a method of gauging his power, Aryha supposed. His Maya had responded in kind. It automatically negated all attacks on him irrespective of strength. Aryha often wondered how that had happened. He did not understand the structures of a lot of spells used on him back then, at least not until they were used on him. Genesis should not have been able to effect spells unknown to him. Though he supposed it could have been instinctive. He probably did not want to die back then.

  
The bells sounded in the distance. Aryha counted eleven gongs. He started to walk towards the outer fields , faintly wondering at the shadows darkening despite the light of full moon. They seemed to gleam red.

  
_Red shadows._

  
The alarm pierced though the silence moments after he had jumped back, just narrowly escaping the large maw of gaping teeth that had opened up in front of him. The creature was already cut in pieces from the scythe Aryha had summoned the same moment, but the damage was done. He gritted his teeth at the alarms. The school gates would close automatically now. He had no chance of leaving this night.

  
Aryha turned towards the next bunch of Anino that had appeared. He could feel the familiar thrum of Maya running though himself and into the world, could feel the dark blot of each Anino and the cursed gate they have stepped through. He breathed out. A five-petal circle sprung into place around him and spread, cutting and absorbing the Anino cleanly.

  
Aryha focussed on the doorway. In the Dragon temple. He could feel its half broken structure. Whoever did this had no clue of what they were dong. He closed his eyes, appearing before the portal that was breaking down on itself. From the corner of his eyes he could see a body shaking and crying. An upperclassman. But no students were supposed to attempt opening any kinds of portal without a Siokka present. He wondered what that boy had been thinking.

  
It did not really matter. He could feel the Kaitsta approaching along with the Siokkae, their Maya burning bright among the Anino defiling the grounds. He saw one of the creatures drag three of its tongue across the statue of Dragon and felt a hot rage sheering thought himself.

  
_Dragon deserved peace. He had already been hurt enough._

Aryha felt his mouth moving with words of power even as his fingers wove a second spell in place. The portal was falling apart at the at the seams and he needed to correct its structure before closing it. His Maya was drawing the Anino near. He placed a locking hexagon on each, drew the dices from the Kal and threw them, letting his Maya mingle with the red string binding the four dices.

  
The threads of nine-layered summoning spells held the door straightened and open. Aryha took a breath and cut the red string tying the Anino.

  
He thought he would feel satisfied seeing the Anino disintegrate. But even after the door had closed and the only sound was that stupid student's sobbing, all he could feel was exhaustion.

  
Ignoring the presences behind himself, Aryha stepped forward towards the Dragon and placed a cleansing charm on him. The moonlight seemed to slide off of his granite body, collecting in small shadowy puddles in curves of his arm, between the knuckles, beyond the bend of his tail, in the corner of his lips.

  
Aryha leaned his forehead against where his heart would be. The stone felt cool against his cheeks.

_I really wanted to go home._

* * *

\- "Still thinking of leaving?"

  
Aryha did not bother turning his head, choosing to focus on the canvas in front of him and huffed silently as the guest sat down on the ground beside him.

  
Kushaya. Kaitsta. Alumni of Yunju Anwansi. Self proclaimed mentor of Aryha.

  
_You did not leave anything but the clean up for me. At least let me dote on you a bit. You are kind of squishy and snugly, you know?_

\- "So you awakened the Dragon."

"Are we making small talk?" Aryha winced the next moment. Nothing delighted Kushaya more than getting a rise out of him.

On the other hand, this was one topic Aryha could do without.

"Are we?" Kushaya hummed. "In that case, before I forget - that student who opened the portal has been suspended. He apparently was showing off to his friends. There were bets involved, as I hear it."

\- "Riveting."

\- " I was also wondering why you aren't spending every moment with the Dragon. You know, the eight feet tall god that you brought to life from a granite statue? With a cleansing spell?"

"Did you ask him the same question?" Aryha turned to glare at the overgrown man-child.

\- "You are not the eight feet tall god."

Aryha looked away. "He sleeps here at times."

\- "To keep you from sneaking off?"

Aryha rolled his eyes. "He is possibly the only person here who understands why I want to leave."

"A lot of people understand why you want to leave". Kushaya said lightly. "They just don't agree with your decision."

\- "Including yourself in that statement?"

Kushaya laughed. "I am trying to recruit you."

  
"Why are you?" Aryha glared at the brush held between his fingers. "I do not want to join you."

\- "But you haven't said no."

\- "I told you - "

\- "You never said no."

Aryha fell silent and tried to turn away. Kushaya had a firm grip on his chin.

"You never said no." He murmured. "You could leave at any moment, but you wait for the dark of night. You could destroy everyone here, but instead you follow the rules."

"And that makes you think I am lying when I say I don't want to be here?" Aryha felt a burn in his throat.

"No." Kushaya let go of him. "But I know that there is something you are not saying. Something you are avoiding to face."

Aryha looked forward blankly for a long moment. He looked at his fingers they were trembling. He dropped the brush and watched Kushaya pick it up gently, carefully.

"The first time I stepped foot in a class, the Siokka tried to gauge the depth of my Maya by piercing my mind with a blade. She could not enter. My Genesis nullified her at the first touch of violation. The first time I tried to run away was a month later, when the Siokka in charge of the dorm decided that crayons were childish for a five years old and threw away all my stuff. I did not know where the gate was, so I jumped off the roof. Genesis kept me alive but I did not know enough about the body or healing magic to heal myself. Genesis also kept anyone's Maya from affecting me, so I had to study healing magic myself before I could heal the broken bones. It took me three days."

Aryha squeezed his fingers to still the shaking. "The first year and every year after - when I went home, my parents never entered my room. They did not hug me, did not touch me. They said they had missed me, but they would not ask me to stay. Instead they told me what the Siokkae had told me - that I had a duty of controlling my Maya, because I was special, becasue I could hurt others if I wanted to. They were afraid. I could tell."

"I wasn't going to them." Aryha continued after a moment. "I was leaving in the night, because I don't want to be called any more of a monster than I already am. Because if I use Genesis at will, everyone will stop pretending that they did not wish me dead." He laughed. It stuck in his throat. "They tried that, you know? Wanted to figure out if I could be killed. And when they saw they couldn't", Aryha scratched at his arms tiredly, "then they told me how much potential I had, how special I was."

"I never said no to you." Aryha said. "To anyone. Because I don't really know what to do after saying no."

\- "And Dragon?"

Aryha turned to meet Kushaya's eyes. He was surprised at the lack of judgement there.

\- "I have always known Dragon. Even before I knew he was, well, _Dragon_. _God_. We met in dreams, i do not remember how long ago."

"I was going to search for him." Aryha said, after a moment. "Once I left here, that is. I was going to look for him."

\- "Home?"

Aryha smiled at the canvas before him. The white expanse looked terribly lonely.

\- "Home."

He did not know when Kushaya left. He did not realise the darkening of the sky outside either, even as the light from the window purpled into a bruise. It was a warm body curling around him that gave him a start.

He turned to look at the familiar face behind him. Dragon looked as gentle as he was in granite.

\- "Its white."

"I know." He leaned against the embrace.

\- "What will you paint?"

Aryha opened his eyes. The arm around him was warm with life.

\- "I want to paint you."

He was already pulling and placing Dragon in the suitable position. The god went with it without arguing and let Aryha position him.

He loosened Dragon's hair. It was long and dark. Aryha also took off the tunic he was wearing and was about to tug off the trousers when he remembered that Dragon was not granite anymore.

He felt his cheeks warming as the god smiled at his unsure look, before removing the rest of the garments by himself. Aryha was already turning towards the canvas.

He wanted that smile.

He looked at Dragon once again. The moonlight was pooling into swirls of shadows within his palm, by the bridge of his nose, over his throat, between his legs, at the corner of his lips, under his eyelashes.

Aryha wanted all of it.

The light was all but gone. But he did not need light to paint his Dragon. He set down his brush and raised his bare hands and let his Maya loose. It spilled on the canvas and carried his sight with it. He ran his fingers over the course surface of the canvas and swirled the colours that his Genesis had brought forth. His eyes stayed on Dragon, caressing his bare form as his finger caressed the canvas.

A drop of paint ran down his arm. Aryha watched as Dragon pressed a thumb against the drop and smudged it around, before leaning back in position. He placed his fingers on the canvas again, and watched the dark paint run down like blood from where he had placed his hands on the hollow of Dragon's throat.

He looked up to meet the god's eyes.

"Don't send me away." He said. 

* * *

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> twt @sphinxdroid
> 
> You can find my original fictions - this one and others - in https://sphinxdroid.wixsite.com/droidtranslations/work
> 
> Eventually I will posting nearly all my original works there, along with some danmei translations - so do drop by.


End file.
